Jul. 16, 2013

Laurie Depies, who disappeared in 1992, is shown in this photo taken in early 1990 by her parents and provided to The Associated Press. (AP Photo/Depies Family) / AP

The only physical evidence police have in the nearly 20-year-old disappearance of Laurie Depies is shown in this photo August 1992 Menasha police photo showing the 20-year-old Appleton woman's Volkswagen Rabbit and a partially filled soda cup on the roof. The night before Depies had pulled into the Town of Menasha apartment complex parking lot of her boyfriend but she never made it inside and has not been seen since. Photo courtesy of Town of Menasha Police Department

How to help

If you have information about the 1992 disappearance of Laurie Depies, contact the state Division of Criminal Investigation at 608-266-1671.

Laurie Depies file

Born: Sept. 17, 1971 Age: 20 (at time of disappearance in 1992) Details of disappearance: On Aug. 19, 1992, Depies worked a shift at the Graffiti store at Fox River Mall. At 9:50 p.m., she and a co-worker locked the store and walked to their cars in the mall parking lot. Depies then drove east on College Avenue. Her 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit pulled into a parking lot at a Town of Menasha parking complex, but she never arrived at her boyfriend’s apartment. Source: Post-Crescent archives, Town of Menasha police

About ‘Cold Cases’

Gannett Wisconsin Media is publishing an exclusive four-week series called Cold Cases: Tracking Wisconsin’s Unsolved Murders. Cold Cases is the most comprehensive unsolved-murders project of regional and statewide interest ever assembled in a print and digital format. The Gannett Wisconsin Media Investigative Team spearheaded the project in conjunction with local reporters at all 10 Gannett Wisconsin Media news organizations, including Post-Crescent Media. The Wisconsin Center for Investigative Journalism in Madison also partnered with the newspapers. The intent of Cold Cases is to generate new, valuable leads and tips for Wisconsin homicide investigators. Many of them have hit roadblocks or face dead-ends. Coming Thursday: The 1990 murder of Berit Beck of Sturtevant. Videos and more: Follow the four-week series in print and on mobile, tablet and desktop at www.post.cr/coldcases.

Mary Wegner holds a photograph of her missing daughter Laurie Depies, on the front porch of her Winneconne home on Tuesday, August 7, 2007 After 15 years of waiting, Wegner still clings to the hope that her daughter, Laurie Depies, will someday come home. Depies was 20 when she disappeared from a parking lot at a Town of Menasha apartment complex during the evening of Aug. 19, 1992. Post-Crescent photo by Mike De Sisti

This playing card features Laurie Depies, who disappeared 20 years ago from an apartment parking lot in the Town of Menasha. Wisconsin Cold Cases. - deck of cards. Appleton missing person Laurie Depies This deck profiles 52 unsolved homicides, missing person and unidentified remain cases. The Wisconsin Association of Homicide Investigators has created a cold case playing card deck in partnership with several Departments, Associations and law enforcement agencies statewide.

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From time to time, Mary Wegner gets a glimmer of hope that her long-missing daughter, Laurie Depies, is still alive.

The latest bit of slightly encouraging news came in early May, when it was reported that three women who were kidnapped and held captive in a Cleveland, Ohio, home for nearly a decade had been rescued and reunited with loved ones.

But any optimism generated by that remarkable story didn’t last long.

“I don’t know that it raised my hopes much,” Wegner said, with a tone of resignation in her voice. “I don’t know if there is any hope left, or if I’m just waiting for some final answers.”

Wegner is all but certain that it’s the latter.

Depies was 20 when she disappeared after leaving work at the Fox River Mall on Aug. 19, 1992, and arriving at her boyfriend’s apartment in the Town of Menasha. He’s not considered a suspect.

The Appleton woman hasn’t been heard from since. No phone calls. No bank or credit card activity. No reliable sightings.

“I don’t know what else I can do but wait,” Wegner said.

Optimism and pessimism

Despite her grief over her missing daughter, Wegner hasn’t given up hope that investigators will solve the mysterious case.

Her spirits were lifted considerably when she was informed in 2011 that Larry DeWayne Hall had confessed to kidnapping and killing Depies and burying her in a remote area in south-central Wisconsin.

Hall made the admission to investigators at a federal prison in North Carolina, where the Wabash, Ind., man is serving a life sentence for the 1993 kidnapping of an Illinois girl.

“I was thinking, ‘We might get some answers,’” Wegner said. “There was definitely hope. Larry Hall was telling police that he had a good idea of where he buried Laurie’s body and they were trying to find it.”

But that initial optimism was tempered when searchers were unable to find Depies’ remains. Without that physical evidence, authorities have been unable to verify Hall’s confession.

“Nothing surfaced,” Wegner said. “But after 20 years, what are you going to find?

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“It’s kind of like letting the wind out of your sails.”

Police have expressed interest in bringing Hall to Wisconsin to reveal where she is buried, but that has yet to happen. The absence of remains and the lack of compelling physical evidence has put any prosecution of Hall on hold.

“They have a confession but they can’t confirm it. And the individual who has confessed is in prison for life,” said Winnebago County District Attorney Christian Gossett. “We’re sort of stuck in a position where he hasn’t given us anything to confirm it.”

Gossett wants to make sure he files charges against the person who is responsible for what happened to Depies. And he’s concerned that Hall — who told a reporter in May 2011 he abducted 39 women and killed some of them before going to prison in 1994 — may be trying to “rack up a scorecard” of murder victims.

“There is a huge benefit to having something resolved, but it has to be resolved in the right way,” Gossett said.

Former Town of Menasha Police Lt. Mike Krueger, who worked on the Depies case from the time Depies vanished in 1992, retired last year. The case was turned over to the state Division of Criminal Investigation. Special agent Kyra Schallhorn is assigned to the case.

“I’m always working on it,” Schallhorn told Post-Crescent Media last month. “But there’s nothing new to report right now.”

Memories live on

Wegner still thinks often about her missing daughter, who would be in her 40s today.

“You always wonder what might have been and what things might have been different if she was still around,” said Wegner, who lives in Winneconne.

She has a vivid recollection of talking to her daughter just prior to her disappearance.

“It was two days before she disappeared,” Wegner said. “We talked about her work (at the former Graffiti store in Fox River Mall). And she talked about wanting to take a driving trip to Arizona to visit her aunt.

“That’s the last time I talked to her.”

Wegner, who retired in 1997 after working at the former La Salle Clinic in Menasha as secretary to the medical director, keeps active with gardening and loves spending time with her family.

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She looks at life differently since Laurie’s abrupt and unexpected departure.

“She disappeared from the face of the earth without any final words,” Wegner said. “I always make sure that the last words I have said to anyone are kind words.”

Laurie’s father, Mark Depies of Fond du Lac, said he’s leaned on family members and the community to cope with the loss.

“What really helped me through was the support from everyone; there was an unbelievable amount of support out there,” Mark Depies said. “At the time (of Laurie’s disappearance) I worked at St. Agnes Hospital (in Fond du Lac) and it was just amazing the amount of people who lent support at the time.

“And there are still people that on anniversary dates or when there’s something in the news will ask how I’m doing and how I feel. Support was what got me through.”

Depies said he still wonders if his daughter is alive.

“That never goes away. In my mind, 95 percent of me says she’s dead, but there’s always that 5 percent of hope that she’s not. I still think about her a lot. But as the days go by, I think about it less. You just do what you have to do.”

Depies doubts he’ll ever find out what happened.

“When this thing first happened, I said I could die without ever having an answer. I am probably guessing that after 20 years I probably won’t ever have any closure. I’ve lived without any this long, I don’t necessarily need closure because then I would have a whole bunch of different emotions that I’ve dealt with before.

“Unless, of course, the closure was a good thing and she would walk in the door some day. But that’s pretty highly unlikely.”